Electric Fields and Charged Particles

Flashcards covering key vocabulary and concepts related to electric fields and charged particles, as outlined in the lecture notes.

Electric Field

A region around a charged particle where other charged particles experience a force.

Superposition Principle

The net electric field at any location is the vector sum of the individual electric fields from all source charges.

Electric Dipole

An electric dipole consists of two point particles with equal and opposite charges, separated by a distance.

Polarization

The alteration of charge distribution in an object due to an external electric field.

Conductor

An object with charged particles that are freely mobile, allowing them to move easily through the material.

Insulator

A material containing charged particles that can only move a very small distance, restricting charge flow.

Electric Potential Energy

The energy stored due to the position of charged particles in an electric field.

Charge Conservation

The principle stating that the total charge in an isolated system remains constant.

Capacitor

A device consisting of two plates that can store electric charge and energy in an electric field.

Electric Field Strength (E)

The force per unit charge experienced by a charge placed in an electric field, given by the formula E = F/q.

Drift Speed

The average speed of charged particles in a conductor, proportional to the net electric field present.

Spherical Shell of Charge

A uniformly charged object where the electric field inside the shell is zero and outside it follows E = kQ/r².

Electric Field from a Point Charge

E = (1/4πε₀) * (q/r²), where q is the charge and r is the distance from the charge.

Electric Field of a Uniformly Charged Disk

Calculated using E = (σ/2ε₀) * (1 - z/√(R² + z²)), with σ as surface charge density.

Potential Difference

The work done per unit charge in moving a charge between two points in an electric field.

Work-Energy Principle

The principle stating that the work done on a charged particle by electric forces equals the change in kinetic and potential energy.